Winter Flies

The Slovenian-born Omerzu’s third feature is a charming and deceptively simple comic road movie following two teenage boys as they traverse the Czech countryside in search of freedom and perhaps adulthood—although they have very far to go. Having stolen an Audi, the outwardly confident, shaved-head Mára (Tomás Mrvík) picks up his goofball friend Hedus (Jan Frantisek Uher), the two setting off under mysterious pretenses. Encountering two strong women on their trip—street-smart hitchhiker Bára (Eliska Krenková) and officer Freiwaldova (Lenka Vlasáková)—the boys maybe are in for more than they bargained, forced to examine their motives and their places in the pecking order. Gorgeously shot and featuring plenty of foggy Eastern European landscapes, Winter Flies is incessantly funny, often poignant and “a lovely little film that’s as comfortable as an old sweater and almost as warm.” —Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter. The Czech Republic’s foreign-language Oscar submission.